Who Is Buried in Bush's Speech?

a
what happened on us un iraq?

did I miss something?

The Tom DeLay petition
I read the text of the Tom DeLay petition. I consider it to be nothing more than a chain letter of no value other than publicity for its author.

A petition's purpose is to remedy something. This petition does nothing more than collect signatures on a chain letter-type complaint about DeLay.
It has no legal standing regarding whether it requires Texas or national citizen's signatures.

Signing it may only achieve one thing of value. It will give the author another name/address to add to his contact list. He may even make money off of it by selling the information to others.

I consider Tom DeLay to be one of the more evil persons in Congress, but this petition will be nothing more than a pimple on his butt.

BumbleBeeBoogie

I agree, BBB. For amusement only.

a

Ah, but BumbleBee - many pimples constitute a case of acne, and considering that part of DeLay's anatomy, wouldn't it be grand.

I agree with you all about this petition. And I personally sign very few things. But I think this guy is for real, since I've read a number of things he's written on a couple of other forums. And not exactly a chain letter.

The Washington Post is not letting up on that State of the Union speech, and it's beginning to look like the WH is going to have to come up with some new answers. According to the Post, the WH was hoping to use the uranium story to keep the WMD subject alive and well to convince the American public, and was using that false info deliberately before, during, and after the speech.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31496-2003Aug7.html

a
When they become this blatant be afraid .... be very afraid....



Cheney firm's rival is forced to drop oil bid

David Teather, New York
Saturday August 9, 2003
The Guardian

One of the main bidders for the lucrative contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil industry has dropped out of the race, amid concerns that the tender process unfairly favours Halliburton, the company with close ties to the US vice-president, Dick Cheney.

The construction giant Bechtel, one of the biggest engineering companies in the world, now plans to sidestep Washington and apply directly to the Iraqi oil ministry for work.

The growing disquiet over cronyism in George Bush's administration was further stirred yesterday when it emerged that a friend of the president who helped his election campaign had been hired as the director of private development in Iraq.

Thomas Foley, 51, befriended Mr Bush when they attended Harvard. He will be in charge of 200 state-owned enterprises including mining, chemical, cement and tobacco production, and report directly to the top US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.

A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, was quietly awarded a contract without tendering in the spring to perform immediate repairs to Iraq's oil infrastructure, and extinguish oil fires. The Army Corps of Engineers said the work, which could be worth up to $7bn (£4.3bn), was part of a wider contract signed last year.

Two further contracts worth $500m each for repair work in the oil industry have since been offered.

However, a week ago, the date for completion of the work was brought forward to December 31, sparking concerns that the deadline would be nearly impossible to meet for any company not already on the ground in Iraq.

The Army Corps did not return telephone calls on the matter yesterday.

A Bechtel spokeswoman, Alison Abbott, said: "The Army Corps of Engineers' final plan for Iraqi oil services work details their intent to accelerate the transition of responsibility to the Iraqi oil ministry, effectively minimising the scope of any new contracts. Given this plan, Bechtel has decided to focus our efforts on future opportunities with the ministry."

The San Francisco-based company won the $680m chief contract to begin work on rebuilding other Iraqi infrastructure - roads and schools - from the US agency for international development earlier this year.

At a meeting with the Army Corps last month to discuss the forthcoming contracts, several of the putative bidders expressed concerns that Halliburton would have an unfair advantage because it was already working in Iraq.

Halliburton was involved in a separate meeting in late July in Baghdad with the Army Corps, the oil ministry and other officials to set out what was needed to restore Iraq's oil infrastructure to prewar levels.

Mr Cheney is the former chief executive of Halliburton, and left with a $36m severance package in 2000 to join the White House campaign. In its latest financial results, Halliburton said 9% of its $3.6bn quarterly revenues had come from Iraq.

Democrats have expressed dismay that a single company should make so much from the rebuilding of Iraq, and questioned the links between Mr Cheney and the firm.

Special report
Iraq

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The War We Could Not Stop - the real story of the battle for Iraq, published by Guardian Books and Faber. Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

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Interactive guides
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Re: The Tom DeLay petition

Thank you, BBB, for showing that some opinions are a matter of REASON and not of RHETORIC or BIAS. You and I agree about this petition, not out of a mutual love for Delay, but out of a shared recognition of REALITY.

mj - Citing the guy who started this "petition" as proof that he has a clue is what we call circular logic. Where does he cite the authority under which he calls for Delay's removal? These things don't just happen because a whole lot of whiny little Dems wish it, you know.

See BBB's comments.

Scrat,

Mamaj didn't site the man who started the petition to prove anything. According to my reading of her post, she was simply saying that she, personally believes he'll do as he says and that he has the ability to do so. Circular logic would only be a label you could apply in the case of an argument.

If you are simply stating that she had no rational argument, then we're in agreement. But, her comments were intended to refute my statement that there is no authority under which this silly petition can take any action against Delay, as written. It is an empty, masturbatory gesture, and attractive only to the hate-wing of the Democrat party.

Hating Delay solves nothing. Neither does signing this petition. Both simply serve to make you feel better. So, go ahead and feel better if you want. Besides, I'm happy to see people wasting their energies on crap like this.

Scrat
Scrat, while I appreciate your recognition of my ability of rational analysis, I don't appreciate being used to inflict belicose rudeness on other A2K posters.

Please disagree with civility---or GO TO YOUR ROOM!

---BumbleBeeBoogie

I know where the waste of time is...................

Bellicose rudeness? That's good.

Did he go to his room?

In a twit

Re: Scrat

I "used you" for nothing of the kind, rather I pointed out that claiming that MY point of view was due to bias didn't wash in light of the fact that you share that point of view while not sharing my biases.

I expect that point to go over some heads, but not yours.

But he opened the door to complain.

Came back in the same twit

mj - You can get as personal and insulting as you like, but it doesn't change the fact that the petition you were so excited about is an unadulterated load of crap and not worth the electrons being used to display it. That was the point I made, and about which you whined.

Of course, an intelligent, rational woman would either prove her point or offer a courteous retraction, but I have no illusions that I'm dealing with one. None whatsoever.

Now scrat, don't get those nuts all bundled up so you can't move.

You actually made no point at all, and I believe the whining came from you and your alter ego.

Had you bothered to read anything at all I wrote about that petition, you wouldn't have made such a fuss. Surely it must have occurred to you somewhere in your wanderings that you were in disagreement with just about everybody else?

Now, how about that retraction? You willing to be half way intelligent and rational and apologise for all those nasty things you said about me?

As a matter of curiosity, what is that nervous little twitch you give? Is it connected to the physiogomy?

Perhaps you should stay in your room until it goes away?

Scrat
Scrat, you tried to sidestep your rudeness in your comments to other A2K posters. For example: "It is an empty, masturbatory gesture, and attractive only to the hate-wing of the Democrat party."

It is my practice to ignore posters who cannot engage in discussion without being excessively rude. The ONLY reason I responded to your post agreeing with my opinion regarding the petition was to invite you to be civil when you disagree with others. I consider that to be a rational proposal. It seems you approve rationality more than irrationality, so I'm disappointed that you didn't catch my point.

I'm not thrilled with the response of other A2K posters to your posts. In my opinion, they are only throwing gasoline on burning embers and not adding any quality to the discussion by prolonging the verbal combat.

So there, I've bitched about the behavior of both sides of the issue. Now I'm probably in deep do do. :wink:

---BumbleBeeBoogie